The Minister for the Overseas Territories, Lord Ahmad, and elected leaders and representatives of the Overseas Territories met at a Joint Ministerial Council (JMC) at Lancaster House in London on 28 and 29 November 2017.

Ministers from the following departments also attended: Departments for International Development; HM Treasury; Health; and Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy. This demonstrates the UK government’s commitment to a whole of government approach to supporting the Territories.

The Joint Ministerial Council is the highest political forum under the 2012 White Paper. It brings together UK ministers, elected leaders and representatives of the Overseas Territories to provide leadership and shared vision for the Territories. Its mandate is to monitor and drive forward collective priorities for action in the spirit of partnership.

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Defra, has asked us to make UKOTs/CDs aware of education packs recently produced on illegal wildlife trade by Tale2Tail and WWF-UK and . At UKOTCF’s suggestion following this request, Defra/WWF have arranged for their packages to be available without the previous complex application procedures. Whilst the examples do not relate directly to UKOTs/CDs and illegal wildlife trade, the general issues are addressed and the materials well made.

A site in the Adopt a Home for Wildlife initiative of UKOTCF & Montserrat National Trust is also an experimental location for reintroduction of 'mountain chicken' frogs - whose survival is threatened by an introduced fungus. Our video describes testing the experimental manipulation of conditions to help the frogs overcome this.

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A site in the Adopt a Home for Wildlife initiative of UKOTCF & Montserrat National Trust is also an experimental location for reintroduction of 'mountain chicken' frogs - whose survival is threatened by an introduced fungus. Our video describes testing the experimental manipulation of conditions to help the frogs overcome this.

We are pleased to announce that a virtual tour for the Isle of Man now joins the recently new ones for the Cayman Islands, South Georgia & the South Sandwich Islands, and the Cayman Islands and the others already available on the web-site. More follow. See the index and links here.

UK Government's Call for Evidence on its future support for nature in UKOTs has been issued. Their press release can be seen here. UKOTCF expects to make a submission, based on the information & views of its network working across the UKOTs & CDs (although the latter are not included in UKG's Call, as UKG does not support those).

The UK Parliament’s Environmental Audit Committee has launched an inquiry looking at invasive species, including across the UK Overseas Territories .
The inquiry closes on Tuesday 30th April 2019. More

We are pleased to announce that virtual tours for the Cayman Islands, South Georgia & the South Sandwich Islands, and the Cayman Islands have now been added to the others available on the web-site. More follow. See the index and links here.

The House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee has published the report of its Inquiry into "Global Britain and the British Overseas Territories: Resetting the relationship." In doing so, the Committee said “The British Overseas Territories total population is only about 250,000 but they include some of the greatest biodiversity in the world.” UKOTCF had given written and oral evidence to the Committee. Full story

Emails with @ukotcf.org addresses are now functional again, as are all parts of the UKOTCF web-site. We apologise to users for a failure in part of our communications system, now fixed. A serious hardware fault and a lack of backup, at one of our internet service providers, had prevented access to a few parts of our web-site, and also meant that all our @ukotcf.org email addresses could not be accessed for too long. Full story

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This page allows you to make one-off donations or set up a regular subscription to support ongoing conservation efforts across the UK Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies. To find our more about how donations are used read more

Superb wetlands where the land meets the sea: A superb complex of natural coral reefs, tidal flats, mangroves and marshlands provide a haven for wildlife, and the natural basis of fisheries and tourism. The islands provide a home for at least 14 unique plants, reptiles (including the rock iguana), and an unknown number of invertebrates, as well as the vulnerable reddish egret and West Indian whistling duck. Read more

The Caribbean's Emerald Isle: Despite its small size, Montserrat supports at least 132 tree species, 59 species of birds and 13 mammals. The Montserrat oriole is found nowhere else. Also restricted to Montserrat are the galliwasp and anole. The endangered 'mountain chicken' (a frog) is found only on Montserrat and Dominica. Several other species are restricted to Montserrat and some nearby islands. Read More